


Kings and Villains to be Saved

by zinjadu



Category: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 16:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Re-writing of 2x13, Marian is now smart about handling Guy.  Written a while ago, rehosting here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kings and Villains to be Saved

“Guy! No!” she screamed, throwing herself in between her sometimes tormentor sometimes ally and her king. She put her hands up, forward, stopping him. She did not miss the confusion that played across his face.

“Marian? What are you doing here?” he rasped, drawing closer to her. She instructively tried to back up, but doing so would give too much ground to Guy, bringing him closer to the king. Throwing her last bit of caution to the dry desert winds, she reached for his hands though they were closed about a sword. She could not overpower him, but she could stall him.

“The sheriff told me that for trying to turn you against him, I was to be executed. He took me out to the desert to die, Guy. Tied me up with Robin Hood and his gang and left me to rot.”

“No, he wouldn’t do that. He,” Guy shook his head, bewildered, unbelieving.

Marian prayed that Robin or one of his gang, someone with a weapon would get here soon and end this farce.

“But he did, Guy. Look! Look.” She held her wrists up for him to see, nearly shoving them right under his nose. She would force him to see, to look, to really understand what sort of man he followed, what sort of man he had become. He blinked and backed up, as if he did not want to see the hard evidence, the consequences of his actions.

“I did not think he would… I will speak to him about this, but Marian, please, stand aside,” he said hastily, and pushed her aside. His choice had been made.

“I will not!” she declared, moving once more between Guy and King Richard. She flung her arms wide open and left herself defenseless. “You are a better man than this Guy! I beg of you, do not do this!” Her voice was high, desperate. She did not dare fight him without a weapon while he had a sword, but she did not know what words would sway him. She could not offer herself as bait any longer; she had since grown tired of those lies. But she could place one last seed of doubt in his mind. “Do not go where I will not follow you, Guy of Gisborne. I will not let you commit treason.”

That stopped him. She was temped to smile in triumph. She had him. But she kept her expression worried and concerned.

Though when Robin sidled up behind Guy, arrow aimed, she could not help but break into a grin.

“Surrender, Gisborne. It’s over,” Robin ordered. Marian watched Guy’s face as he cast about the square, looking for avenues of escape, and found them filled with members of Robin’s gang.

And Guy of Gisborne was surrounded, defeated, and proven guilty in sight and hearing of his king. He had been beaten. His sword fell from his hands with a dull thud on the ground. Marian reached forward, grabbed it, and backed up before anyone could react.

Behind her King Richard levered himself up off the ground. There had been no sign of the sheriff. Guy had been abandoned. Marian was hardly surprised, though she could not help but feel some residual pity for the man so unloved and despised.

“Well done, Robin. And you, my lady,” King Richard said calmly, as though he were run down into the sand every day by men trying to kill him every day. Then again he probably was.

“Marian, your Majesty,” Robin supplied, already walking confidently past Guy while the gang bound their unresponsive prisoner.

“Lady Marian,” Richard said, bowing his head towards her. “A good ally indeed. Your words were enough to keep this man busy. Well done.”

“My lord,” she said, dipping a curtsy. She watched, once again a spectator, as the king approached his would-be murderer.

“This lady forestalled your hand, Guy of Gisborne, and for that you are saved,” the king began. Guy could only stare into the middle distance, a lost forgotten thing. “But in light of your intentions, and your willingness to carry them out, I am afraid that I cannot be lenient.” Richard looked at Robin, who gave his king a grim nod. Marian looked to the rest of the gang, and saw their approval in their grim faces.

Guy shuddered, but did not protest. Marian could not take any more. She did not hate this man, for that would require too much energy. She pitied him.

“Your Majesty, I beg you listen to me before you pronounce this man’s sentence,” she said suddenly, inwardly wincing at Robin’s accusatory stare and Guy’s pathetic gaze of hope. Instead she focused on King Richard’s curious expression.

“Speak your peace, Lady Marian,” Richard commanded, and she felt the weight of everyone’s stares as she spoke.

“I do not defend his actions, your Majesty, but wish to offer a context for them. He has been ill used by the sheriff of Nothingham, ordered to commit heinous crimes by those with more power than he himself possessed. He is not an evil man, I cannot believe that. I have seen acts of kindness done by this man, done on my behalf at great risk to himself. I know him to not be devoid of moral sentiment, merely lost and confused. I beg mercy. Do not sentence him to death, but let him instead prove himself worthy of redemption. For are we not in the same land where our lord redeemed us all? How can we deny one man that very same chance?” The words left her in a rush, and she felt almost guilty defending that man, but something in her could not let him just die. She avoided all the other’s gazes, keeping her eyes surely focused on King Richard.

The king, for his part, hemmed and hawed, looking closely at Guy. Guy, for his part could only stare at Marian, a mix of confusion and hope and fear playing across his face.

“You speak very well, my lady, and I think you are correct,” Richard spoke.

“She’s right?” Robin exclaimed. “He’s tried to kill you twice.”

“I am aware of that, Robin of Loxley,” Richard said firmly, giving Robin a quelling look over his shoulder before turning back to Guy. “But Marian is correct. Who am I to deny a man a chance at redemption. If he truly wants to be redeemed.” The last was spoken with weight. It was a threat. Guy’s fate would lie in the Holy Land with Richard. Robin’s part in bringing Guy to justice was over.

Marian sighed with relief. They had saved the king, and perhaps a man’s soul.

She reckoned she had done good work. She doubted if Robin would be inclined to agree.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

They stood at the edge of camp, horses at the ready while Richard spoke from his mount. Guy was elsewhere, somewhere on a dangerous mission under close supervision of some of the king’s best guard. Marian remembered the pronouncement of Guy’s fate well. He would serve in the Holy Land until peace could be achieved. If he survived, he would be pardoned. If he died, justice had been done.

She would never forget Richard’s warm, friendly face going cold as he said to Gisborne, “I would suggest you pray for peace.”

That had been the last time she had seen the man. Now she doubted if she ever would again. She had mixed feelings about that, but she did hope he lived and came out of this a better person. For his own soul’s sake if nothing else.

Now they were poised to go back. Robin and Marian married by the king himself some hours earlier, and they would return to England very firmly man and wife with no one to divide them. That very fact lifted her own spirits.

“Robin, Marian,” Richard said, his eyes warm once more, “I wish you the best of luck. And to all of you, in England you will represent my interests, and fight my brother John’s intentions whenever you can. But most importantly you must continue with your work to help the poor. Do not give up your fight my friends, for it is a worthy cause. One far more worthy than mine.”

“Majesty,” Robin said, smiling at this man he had continually risked life and limb for.

“Now go, before you miss the tide!” the king boomed.

Laughing, they set off, mounting their horses and making for the port. And Marian looked at them all; Will and Djaq quiet and close together, Much loud enough to make up for Little John’s quiet, even Allan joining in and joking like he’d never been away. And Robin, always Robin, in the lead and at the center. They were all together, as it should be.


End file.
